• May 10, 1999
• Vol. 51
• No. 17

Toland Grinnell: Sculptor

• 

From PEOPLE Magazine

Given his vocation, it's fitting that Manhattan sculptor Toland Grinnell is so well-chiseled. "He used to be a bicycle racer," says his wife, SunHee, a photo editor who knew him back in high school, "so he has these great muscular legs." But Grinnell says that his vanity applies primarily to his work—elaborate mixed-media constructions that depict imaginary worlds within worlds. "I tend to believe that everyone should want to know what I'm doing," says Grinnell, who is finishing up a 16-foot sphere surrounded by nude figures for the new Vegas casino the Venetian.

Still, the 5'8", 30-year-old Brooklyn native has collected admiring glances all his life. "When he was 2, I took him to Europe," recalls mom Christina, vice president of a Manhattan art restoration studio. (Dad J.D. is an Oregon marketing exec who was divorced from Christina in 1972.) "Everybody was enthralled with his blond hair. I remember women in Portugal giving him flowers and oranges." The toddler earned his nursery-school tuition with a modeling gig for Fisher-Price, and at Manhattan's High School of Art and Design, "I was the guy who got all the girls," he says. SunHee, 32, who was two grades ahead, concurs: "Some of the girls used to pull him into the stairwell and make out with him."

Grinnell's grooming routine isn't written in stone. "When I wake, I wash my face, brush my teeth. The only thing I use consistently is an Aveda cream my wife buys." Because "for guys, your hair is your feature," he spends $50 on haircuts ("the most decadent thing I do"). He also splurges on Ralph Lauren and Valentino suits, which he wears to dinner parties and to meet potential clients. Though he says he. takes flak for being a "dandy," he has no desire to dress down. "It's, like, so not any fun," he says. "Like I want to look like some technician? I want to look like some rich guy!"